Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Monday, September 9, 2013

Saturday, September 7, 2013

I'm in the process of fine-tuning this approach into something Babe Lab-able, but if you let the ABSTRACT influence your 'intimate couple' shots rather than individual body parts, you'll get a more conjoined look.

1) Establish a 'portrait' or 'landscape' canvas orientation.
2) Abstractly partition the canvas into unequal 'active' and 'inactive' areas. This can be almost anything, but keep it fairly streamlined. DO NOT THINK ABOUT BODY PARTS AT THIS STAGE.
3) Partition the 'active' area into two unequal parts. These will become a holding space for the two figures. You want one to dominate.
4) Toss in some random diagonals for design grist.
5) Divide the canvas into thirds (represented by green dots here).
6) Use all of the above as a ROUGH spatial division plan, placing something of focal interest at one of the four third points. Break from the abstract as needed, but try to keep its essence.

...

To randomize step 6, which is where the bulk of your invention will take place, go to the folder on your hard drive where you save all your naugty .jps (Don't pretend you don't have one.), and create a slideshow which changes every 15 seconds. Use this to give your brain flashes of situations, angles, hairstyles and wardrobes to use in your compositions. DO NOT LINGER ON ANY ONE IMAGE.

As a further test, I tried having a friend make a random shape for me and seeing what I could get out of it. I also had them choose the orientation of the dominant figure [represented below in red], 'bottom, left.' Past attempts at drawing intimate couples failed because of this lack of a dominant figure, but the *really* encouraging news is that a figure (especially a partially obscured figure) can be fit into any simple abstract. Your subconscious will have fun deciding how. The abstract is the answer!